BepiColombo

A joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Space Agency
(JAXA) mission to explore Mercury that will
consist of two orbiters: a planetary orbiter with a mass of 450 kg and a
magnetospheric orbiter, with a mass of about 30 kg. An originally-planned
lander that was also to have formed part of the mission was cancelled in
2003 due to budget constraints.

BepiColombo is scheduled for launch in 2013 and arrival at Mercury in 2019
after a journey of 7 billion km. It is named after Giuseppe Colombo, of
the University of Padua, who first suggested how Mariner
10 (the first probe to fly past Mercury) could be placed in an orbit that
would bring it back repeatedly to the innermost planet.

The two orbiters

ESA will produce the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) that will be equipped
with 11 scientific instruments. Flying in a polar orbit, it will study Mercury
for at least a year, imaging the planet's surface, generating height profiles,
and collecting data on Mercury's composition and extremely thin atmosphere.

JAXA will be responsible for the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which
will explore the planet's magnetic field with its five on-board instruments.